


A Perfect Dream

by Briana_Dubs



Category: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden
Genre: F/M, GaaLee, Help, I Caved, LeeGaa, M/M, i caved in so hard, it came and punched me in the face, lee's dream could have been better so i fixed it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 21:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10885560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briana_Dubs/pseuds/Briana_Dubs
Summary: MY VERSION OF LEE'S PERFECT DREAM IN THE INFINITE TSUKUYOMI.It could have been a better dream, so I wrote what I wanted it to be.





	A Perfect Dream

A Perfect Dream

 

                It had all been a dream. He would learn that after he woke up lying on the strange purple rocks and crawled toward his sensei. But until then, the whole thing had seemed real enough, maybe a tad surreal, though if he was being perfectly honest.

                It had started with him in the middle of an open field, enjoying a moment of peaceful fresh air. He had seen TenTen and Guy sensei walking away from him and though he couldn’t remember why, he wasn’t bothered. He had turned his head at the sound of his name being called and grinned brightly when he saw Naruto and Neji, both challenging him to a fight. Two against one. Part of Lee would have commented on what a dirty underhanded tactic that was and how unlike the two it was, but Lee had instead accepted their challenge with an eager smile. He had widened his stance and held out an arm, a silent signal that he was ready for them to attack.

                If there was a nagging feeling in Lee’s head as he fought, he didn’t express it. He kept fighting his two friends, even though he was sure a tiny voice was saying something about Neji somewhere other than where he was. He took the rotation and the rasengan like a pro and managed to knock both his friends onto their backs. His previously stern face broke into the same grin from before. A decisive victory!

                He jumped and exclaimed his joy over his success, when suddenly he was broken from his own cheers by arms going around his neck. He turned and saw the smiling, blushing face of Sakura close to his. “I love you!” she chimed, pulling him close to her.

                Lee’s grin was colored with a blush as well now, but that nagging voice was louder now. Loved him? Why didn’t that sound right? Lee opened his eyes and frowned. Sasuke… That name with Sakura’s brought back some memories that were fuzzier than Lee thought they’d be. But, yes, they were there. Sasuke… He remembered him now.

                He pushed Sakura back for a moment. When had she started kissing his cheek? “Sakura, I am honored, but you are in love with Sasuke…” Yes, he could remember that now. Sakura turned her head away from Lee, and he followed her gaze to see the man Lee remembered as Sasuke standing beneath a tree a little ways away. Hadn’t Naruto and Neji just been here? Had Lee remembered wrong again? His head seemed fuzzy.

                Sakura offered him a gentle hug and a smile before she rushed off to the man Lee remembered she loved. He felt fondly happy for her, even if she did not love him, he was happy. He lowered his gaze down to his hands. The bandages were torn in several spots and there was blood seeping through to the surface.

                “You pushed yourself too hard again,” a voice spoke to his side. Lee raised his head to look and quickly found himself smiling.

                He sat beneath a rocky outcrop in a sandy desert beside Gaara, the Kazekage and his dear friend. Hadn’t he just been with Neji and Naruto? Lee was sure he must have been, how else were his hands injured? He must have lost again for his hands to be in this bad of shape.

                Gaara held out a hand and Lee only laughed and put one of his in it. “I guess I must have,” he said, “It’s good to see you again, my friend. When did you get here?”

                His red haired friend was dabbing a wet cloth to Lee’s bloody knuckles. When had he removed his bandages? Lee didn’t remember him unwrapping his hands. Gaara hummed for a moment before he spoke again, “Not long ago,” he said, turning Lee’s hand over to dab at the cut across Lee’s palm. Lee didn’t remember that cut happening. “Naruto told me you were training, so I came to see you.”

                Lee frowned and looked around himself. The sand was gone and now he was leaning against a training post. A very familiar place to Lee. He practically grew up here, training his days away.

                He laughed quietly. “That does sound like me,” he admitted, ‘Though my memory seems to be off today.” Gaara only glanced up at him as he began wrapping Lee’s hand in the familiar white bandages he always wore. “I could have sworn I was with Neji and Naruto just a moment ago… We had been training.”

                “I didn’t see either of them on my way here,” Gaara said, pulling Lee’s other bloodied hand closer to him to tend to it as well.

                Lee nodded and rested his head against the training post to watch his friend. He couldn’t help but smile. It was so good to see Gaara again. He felt like he never got to see him anymore. Being Kazekage, he was understandably busy.

                “What brings you to the Hidden Leaf Village?” he asked after both his arms were wrapped once again.

                Gaara chose to grace Lee with one of his rare smiles. “I can’t stop by just because I wanted to visit?”

                “Oh!” Lee felt his face heat with embarrassment, that had been a stupid question. “No, no! You can! It’s just unlike you to leave your duties as Kazekage for something so trivial.” The blood red hair shifted as Gaara turned his head to look up at the sky. Lee mimicked him and smiled at the sky full of stars. Had time truly passed by so quickly? It felt like it was day just a moment ago. He sighed to himself. Time passes so fast when one is in the company of good friends.

                Gaara’s soft voice broke Lee from his own musings and he turned his head back to him. “I enjoy your company,” he had said, eyes still on the sky, “You have every reason to hate me and fear me, and yet you don’t.”

                Lee chuckled. “I told you, I do not hold a grudge.”

                “I consider myself lucky for it.”

                Rock Lee watched Gaara for a quiet moment after that. He had grown so much since their first encounter. Even though they hardly got to see each other, Lee had still been able to see his friend grow up. Their relationship had truly grown since their first battle in the Chuunin exams. What once was a tense, unsteady, crumbling rock was now a strong, stable platform on which they both stood as comrades and equals. Or as close to equals as they could be, seeing as Lee wasn’t leader of a nation and never really aspired to be one.

                He knew Gaara and Naruto had a truly special bond that he could never compete with, but Lee found himself happy to know Gaara had chosen to spend time with him over his boisterous blond friend. It might have been selfish, and Guy sensei surely would have scolded him for it, but Lee found himself not wanting Gaara’s attention split away in this moment. It was peaceful. They hardly ever got any moments of peace in their world. It seemed every moment they were fighting for their lives. Getting to sit and just enjoy each other’s company was a rare blessing. Still, Lee couldn’t help but be selfish every now and then.

                “Actually,” Gaara said, looking at him now, “There was something I had wanted to say to you, Lee.”

                Lee smiled and offered his undevided attention.

                “Bushy brows!” Lee jolted. That was Naruto’s voice.

                He had turned his head, heard Naruto call again, but could not see him. The edges of his vision were starting to fade away to white. “Gaara, before Naruto gets here, what did you wish to tell me?”

                The white seemed to be stealing all of his senses. Lee couldn’t hear his own voice as he asked, but he was sure he had asked. His friend closed his eyes, smiled, and Lee read his lips as everything blinked away from him.

                His eyes shot open immediately and he was staring straight ahead, lying on his stomach in the daylight. His breath came fast and shallow. Where was he? Hadn’t he just been sitting in the village with Gaara?

                The bushy browed ninja tried to push himself up, but found his muscles to be sore and aching, and quickly collapsed again, eyes closing with the pain and effort.

                “Lee?” His eyes flew open again at that voice. Words played in his head at a volume so loud it made his ears ring. Three different words. Separate from the one he had just heard. He hadn’t heard them just a moment ago, but now they were screaming at him. The words were hitting him again and again and Lee had to inhale sharply until they finally hit him as one solid statement.

                                Slowly Lee’s eyes lifted up to look at Gaara, who was sitting just a little ways away from where he lie. Lee stared at the pale lips and could vividly see the shapes that matched the words screaming in his head. The movement he had seen in Gaara’s lips just before he returned.

                                Swallowing, Lee pushed himself up again, ignoring the stiff pain in his body, and turned his gaze to his sensei, who lie between them. Yes, he remembered now. There was a war. They had been fighting. As he had recalled, they had been losing. He vaguely registered his friend speaking to him again, but Lee could only hear the same three words coming from him.

                He hadn’t heard them at all in that strange other world. Why could he hear nothing but them now?

                Putting a hand against his head, Lee groaned and tried to make the world come back into complete focus. “I am sorry,” he finally managed to say. The words were quieting down now. “What did you say? I did not hear you.”

                “I asked if you were all right,” Gaara said. Yes, the words were silent now. Lee was back. He wasn’t sure where he had gone, but he was back again.

                Even as he collapsed again from the strain on his muscles, Lee said, “Oh, yes, I am fine. Just a little delirious is all.”

                Lee was sure of the words he had seen from his friend. One hundred percent. And he was sure he had felt happy to hear them.

                He would focus on that later. He crawled to his sensei and quickly felt his wrist for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak. Steeling himself, Lee pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain flaring once again, and started to stoop to lift his beloved teacher.

                “Lee.” He looked up at the sound of his name and smiled ever so slightly to see Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura on their way toward them. A strange pang of guilt rang through him at the sight of Sakura and it unnerved him, but he chose to ignore that much like the pain.

                “Lee, you shouldn’t push yourself,” Kakashi said once again, “You’re in no shape to be-“

                He cut across him, tears in his eyes. “Guy sensei needs my help!” he sobbed out, “I was useless to him in the battle! I will not be useless now!” He turned his determined, teary eyes to Sakura. “Where is Lady Tsunade?”

                Naruto left the other two to go and see other survivors. “Lee,” Sakura started, moving out towards him, “You really should wait. Naruto could bring her to us.”

                “I want to help him!” Lee cried again, forcing his legs to move. The flames of pain licked all up and down his calves and stung at him everywhere else, but he held his sensei close and pushed forward anyway. “It does not matter how I am feeling!”

                Sand pooled beneath his feet and Lee took pause long enough to look at the one he knew had called it there. “You really should listen to your friend,” Gaara’s calm voice informed him, “You’re in no condition to carry someone across a battlefield.”

                Sakura quickly nodded. “Gaara’s right, Lee,” she said, “Let him carry us to Tsunade. You need to rest. Your body needs it.”

                He gave in, but clutched his sensei close to his chest as the sand flew them across the scarred earth. Sakura was beside him, trying her best to heal Guy Sensei with what little chakra she had left. Lee couldn’t bring himself to look at her.

                He knew what words he had heard Gaara say before. The same words Skaura had said to him that had him pushing her away.

                I love you.

                Gritting his teeth, he raised his head to look at Kakashi. “What was that?” he asked the older male. If anyone would know, surely it would be him. Naruto returned to them, landing on the sand beside Kakashi with ease.

                His blue eyes looked at Lee and the others before he said, “Grandma Tsunade is awake. I told her we’re bringing a serious case to her.”

                A simple nod and Lee turned his attention back to Kakashi. “It was the Infinite Tsukuyomi,” he explained, “A very powerful jutsu that traps its victims in their perfect dream world.”

                Lee swallowed and felt that guilt course through him again. “Perfect dream?” he repeated, “But I had two dreams…” Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi each looked mildly surprised and very curious as he said that. “Or… Perhaps it was one dream… It seemed so separate, though. One moment I had beaten Naruto and Neji in a fight and was with Sakura,” he noticed the confused way she pursed her lips at that, “But then I wasn’t… I was with…” Lee stopped himself, suddenly feeling even more guilty. Why had he turned Sakura down? He loved her, hadn’t he? His perfect dream should have been all about his relationship with her, but… It hadn’t been. Instead his perfect dream had been him spending time with…

                Lee looked up as Naruto spoke. “Who, Bushy Brows?”

                He felt his face heat up. “I-I will not say,” he said firmly, “All I will say is they told me they loved me.”

                “Whaaaaat!?!!” Both Sakura and Naruto shrieked out in unison, making Lee’s face feel even hotter.

                “Aw, come on, Bushy Brows!” Naruto whined, “You can’t just say something like that and then not tell us who it was!”

                Lee’s face felt so warm he had to wonder if steam was rising from it. Both Naruto and Sakura were continuing to whine and pester him for more information.

                “Well,” Kakashi’s dry monotone broke across the two whiners, “This perfect dream proves something at least.”

                “What’s that?” Naruto asked, looking at his mentor.

                “It proves that you’re not in love with Sakura anymore.” The way he said it made it seem like the simplest, most obvious answer in the world. But that didn’t make Lee feel any better. It just made him look at Gaara and then at Sakura and feel even more guilty than he had before. Not in love with Sakura…? But then, did that mean he was in love with…

                He couldn’t finish the thought. Naruto was calling out to Lady Tsunade and Gaara was lowering them all to the ground.

                Tsunade had asked TenTen to summon up a big tent for Guy. Naruto hadn’t said much, but from the sound of it she was going to need a private space to try and heal him. When Lee and his teacher were dropped down before her she inhaled painfully deeply.

                “What the hell happened to him?”

                “He opened the Eight Gates,” Gaara answered, seeing as Lee was already starting to tear up again.

                “I need every surviving medical ninja with me as soon as possible!” she quickly ordered, pushing herself to her feet. “How did he survive?”

                “Naruto healed him,” Sakura answered, “But he’s still in bad shape.”

                More than just medical ninja gathered around them at that beckoning. Many others wanted to see what had the great Lady Tsunade so worked up over. Quite a few people gasped at the sight of the Taijutsu specialist.

                “This isn’t going to be easy,” Tsunade said, “I don’t have much chakra left. We’re probably going to need to work in shifts to heal him properly.”

                “Grandma Tsunade,” Naruto stepped forward, “Would it help if I shared my chakra with you while you worked?”

                “Mine as well,” Gaara quickly offered, stepping forward with his blond friend.

                “Don’tchoo leave me out of this!” Bee quickly shouted, jumping over to where the others were, “I’ll offer whatever chakra I have to help heal this great Blue Beast!”

                Tsunade’s eyes softened and she smiled. “Yes, that will do very well,” she said, “The three of you have arguably the most chakra of any of us here. It will make the process go a lot faster if you can give whatever you can spare.”

                Sakura and a few other medic ninja had moved toward Lee to take Guy from him and into the tent for healing. But Lee had found himself unable to just release him. He clutched him tighter to his chest, if anything. It was only after Kakashi placed a silent hand on his shoulder that Lee turned his mentor to the medics.

                “Naruto, let’s start with you,” Tsunade said to the blond, “You’ll be giving your chakra to me. Gaara, you can join us in a minute and help Sakura.” The red head nodded mutely. Sakura was one of the ones helping to carry Guy into the tent.

                Lee watched Naruto walk in and then once he was called, Gaara as well. He looked up at Kakashi with a heavy frown.

                “Kakashi sensei,” he started, bringing the silver haired man’s attention to him, “Can I ask you a few questions?”

                He didn’t even look surprised, but he smiled and nodded. “’Course you can, Lee. What’s up?”

                Lee glanced over at the tent and then back up at him. “Could we go somewhere a little more private?”

                Kakashi chuckled. “Sure, but there’s not much in lieu of privacy out in this open crater.”

                They both walked over beside a large shriveled root from the divine tree. They sat across from each other. Lee grimaced as he forced himself to sit. His muscles were probably shredded from opening the sixth gate. He didn’t really care about it, though. Pain was something he was used to. Fearing for his sensei’s life and the massive guilt were new.

                “Kakashi sensei,” he mumbled, looking at his feet, “Have you ever been in love?”

                “Of course.”

                “And… have you ever loved someone else after them…?”

                Kakashi didn’t bat an eye. “Yes,” he replied, “I’m still in love right now.”

                That didn’t do much to comfort Lee. “How did it… feel… when you first realized you loved someone else…?”

                Now the older man’s eyes shone. “I see, you feel guilty about this,” he hummed out, “You really were devoted to Sakura for a long time…”

                “I-“ Lee paused to exhale a shaky breath, “I think I shall always be devoted to her. Just… not in the same way I used to… Is that how you felt?”

                Kakashi’s eyes were soft as he looked at Lee. “When I first realized I was in love with someone else… I felt like a traitor. I felt like I was betraying her memory… Rin had been something special to me and to look at someone else and feel the way I did…” He crossed his arms over his chest, “It made me feel like I was stomping on her grave.”

                Lee nodded solemnly.

                “But,” Kakashi continued, “Something tells me your new someone isn’t dead. Sakura certainly isn’t.”

                Now Lee shook his head gently.

                “Well, love changes with time,” Kakashi offered. “I know I read the books I read and no one thinks those and love go together, but I understand both well enough. You’ve grown since you first fell in love with Sakura. You’ve matured… in a way.” Lee smiled a little as Kakashi added that last bit in. “Besides the point,” Kakasi waved his hand, “Point is, you’ve met a lot of different people since you met Sakura. You’ve spent time with other people, made new friends, forged new bonds. It’s not really that surprising that time away from Sakura and time with someone else made you realize your feelings had changed.” Lee could see the faint outlines of a smile through his mask. “That was how it was for me when I fell in love with Guy.”

                Lee chuckled. “I knew it,” he quipped, grinning at Kakashi.

                Kakashi only waved his hand again. “I had changed since Rin’s death. The things I needed and wanted in my life were different. I think after having such a disastrous and depressing life I really needed Guy’s enthusiasm and positive outlook.”

                Rock Lee blinked at Kakashi a few times. That was… oddly specific wording… It really sounded like he was implying…

                “I may not have my Sharingan anymore, but I’m not blind,” Kakashi said, that smile behind his mask showing, “I saw you looking at Gaara like a flustered twelve year old.”

                Lee’s face went redder than a beet. “Kakashi sensei!!” he wailed, hiding his face in his hands. The older man just laughed and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

                “So he confessed to you in your dream, huh? That’s precious.”

                Lee only buried his head further in his hands and curled in on himself.

                “Ah, Naruto, Gaara,” Kakashi’s voice saying those two names only made Lee sweat and hide himself even more, “Done already?”

                “We didn’t have much chakra, but we gave what we could,” Naruto said, before pausing to look at them. “What’s with Bushy Brows?”

                “Oh, we were just talking about Lee’s Perfect Dream,” Kakshi explained with ease.

                Lee let out a long whine of despair and hid himself more. His nose was touching his shoes. He wished he could just curl up and vanish.

                “Aw, what!?” Naruto stomped his feet, “You told Kakashi sensei but you won’t tell me!? Bushy Brows, I thought we were friends!!”

                Kakashi laughed at Naruto’s outburst, but Lee only stole a glance up at the two of them.

                “C’moooonnn!!!” Naruto whined, dropping down beside him, “Just tell me who it was! I promise I’ll keep it a secret!”

                “No you won’t,” Gaara commented, a fond smile on his face, “You’ll be parading around telling everyone.”

                Naruto looked offended, but Kakashi agreed. “He’s right, Naruto, you would go around and tell everybody.”

                Lee jumped up in an instant after that. “I am going for a quick walk!” he announced.

                “Is that really such a good-“ Kakashi didn’t get to finish his question, Lee was already jogging away. He sighed loudly and looked up at the Sand Ninja still standing.

                “I’ll get him,” Gaara said, “Otherwise he’s going to kill himself training.” Kakshi smiled again behind his mask as Gaara hopped onto a small amount of sand to glide after the green leaf ninja.

                “Should I go too?” Naruto asked.

                Kakashi shook his head. “No,” he said, “I have a feeling they’re going to need a moment to talk alone.”

                “Why?”

                Kakashi shrugged. “Just a feeling.”

                Lee didn’t care that it actually felt like he was trudging through lava. He needed to cool off and training always helped him do that.

                He hadn’t gotten very far before a wall of sand jumped up in front of him.

                Lee ended up stumbling into the sand, simply because he was in too much pain to really stop himself. He was shaking once he touched the sand, though. This was the last person he wanted to talk to right now.

                “You’re going to rip your muscles in half,” Gaara’s calm rasp said, “The medical ninja don’t need any extra work right now.”

                With a groan, Lee plopped himself down on the ground. “You are right,” he grumbled. Gaara often was right. He was just as much of a genius as Neji had been.

                He saw Gaara’s black shoes in front of his vision and then Gaara sat in front of him. Lee glanced up at him before huffing and resting his chin on his left palm.

                “Your dream was that troubling, was it?”

                Lee was not going to answer that. “What did you dream about?” he asked, avoiding eye contact.

                “That I was a child again,” Gaara replied, “And my family was happy and together and that I had friends to play with every day.”

                The leaf nin groaned. Of course Gaara would have a perfectly wonderful, not bothersome dream. Unlike him. Why did his dream have to involve love and romance? Well, because he was all about romance, who was he kidding? He was a hopeless romantic.

                “You’re really not going to tell me about your dream, are you?” Lee blinked at Gaara’s question and raised his head. He sounded mildly annoyed. “Do you not trust me to keep it a secret?”

                Lee grimaced “It’s not that. I know you’re not like Naruto.”

                “Then why don’t you trust me with it?”

                “It isn’t that I do not trust you, Gaara,” Lee said, lowering his head again and rubbing at his forehead, “It is that I do not trust myself.”

                The quiet hum Gaara made had Lee lifting his head again. The look on Gaara’s face said it all. Who knew about not trusting oneself better than mister “I killed hundreds of people from the time I was six years old”?

                With a huff, Lee gave up a little of his resolved embarrassment. It was one thing about Gaara, Lee still wasn’t quite sure, but he couldn’t keep clammed up around him. It was the same way with TenTen. Each of them had some sort of power over Lee that made him unwilling to ever lie to them.

                “It is just… I feel like a traitor to Sakura and to myself,” he explained, looking up at the sky, “I had vowed to become a great man that would impress her and make her love me, but here I am going back on my word. I’ve never gone back on my word before.”

                Gaara nodded with a little bit of a scoff. “Yes, you certainly are dedicated to keeping your promises…”

                “And now that I know I have… someone else,” Lee said, still keeping the most crucial bit of information secret, “I do not know if I will remain faithful to any promises I make to them, as I was not faithful to Sakura.”

                “Lee, you’re allowed to break a few promises in your life.”

                “But not promises so important as vows of love!” Lee quickly argued back, head snapping back down to look at Gaara, “It is almost like I broke a marriage vow!”

                He saw Gaara roll his robin’s egg blue eyes before smiling at him. “I think you’re being a tad overdramatic.”

                “I made her a promise, Gaara,” Lee huffed.

                Gaara shrugged. “To me it only sounded like you had vowed to grow into a man worthy of her appreciation and admiration. You never really vowed to be faithful to her and her alone, did you?”

                Lee blinked a couple of times. No. No, he hadn’t. He had only vowed to grow into a man worthy of her. His eyes immediately lit up.

                “Gaara, you are truly a genius!” he cheered excitedly, almost jumping up to pump a fist in the air. He was stopped by sand pushing him back to his seated position. “Oh,” he laughed sheepishly, “I forgot… My injuries.”

                “You often forget about those,” the Kazekage commented, earning a big grin, thumbs up, and a wink from the leaf ninja.

                “Still,” Lee said, turning serious almost instantly, “This does not make it any easier for me to confess my feelings.”

                Gaara scoffed at him again, letting the sand fall from Lee’s shoulders. “You overthink everything,” he said, “Just get it over with and tell them. The worst they can say is no, isn’t it?” Lee pouted at him. “Sorry, I’ve not exactly had a lot of experience in this emotional stuff,” Gaara said.

                Lee smiled. “I know,” he said, “You’ve come a great deal from where you started, though.” Gaara made a bit of a face at him. “Though I do not think you should ever play matchmaker.”

                The sand nin rolled his eyes again and looked over to where Bee was exiting the tent that held Guy sensei. When he turned his head back, Lee’s face was as red as it got when he opened the chakra gates. He raised a hairless brow at his friend.

                Lee quickly shifted how he was sitting to kneel and bow before Gaara. In one quick breath, Lee practically shouted, “Kazekage Gaara, I have discovered I have feelings for you and wish to know your response to my affections!”

                Silence.

                Gaara was staring at Lee with big wide eyes. Off in the distance a loud “WHAT” could be heard from Naruto, and the blond was already trying to sprint over to them. He was restrained by Kakashi just as quickly, however.

                Lee had his forehead touching the ground and he swallowed nervously as he waited for Gaara to say something. Anything. At this point he would take a simple scoff like he normally got.

                “Lee, stop bowing, you know I hate the formalities.” Okay, that was better than a scoff.

                Lee lifted his overheated face and looked at his friend with hopeful, expectant eyes. Gaara wasn’t looking at him, but his cheeks were dusted pink.

                After another long moment of silence, Lee squeaked out a very nervous, “Gaara?”

                His friend’s eyes slid to him and he let Lee see that wonderful heart melting smile he rarely ever showed anyone. “I did say the worst thing I could do would be to say no, didn’t I?” Lee continued staring at him, face hot and hands sweaty.

                Gaara leaned forward faster than Lee had expected he would. That smile was still on his face as he whispered close to Lee’s own lips, “Good thing for you that I’m not saying no, isn’t it?”

                The gasp Lee tried to take in was trapped by the soft, sweet press of Gaara’s lips to his.

                It only lasted a brief second, but the contact had felt like electricity in his veins. Lee stared at Gaara breathlessly as the red head pulled away.

                Gaara’s happy smile slowly fell into a confused frown. “Lee?”

                “THANK YOU!” Was the shriek Lee used to reply.

                Gaara winced at the volume and Lee quickly cowered in on himself, covering his mouth. Gaara’s gentle smile was back and he reached a hand out, carefully pushing Lee’s hands away from his face. “I hope you understand I’m not going to be quite as emotionally receptive as you,” he said.

                Lee nodded, smiling though he was still embarrassed at his outburst. “Oh, I am aware. Kakashi sensei cleared that up earlier. Not to worry.”

                “He cleared it up?”

                Another nod from the black haired nin. “He had said enthusiasm and positivity would be good for you.”

                “He really said that?” Gaara looked over at the silver hared ninja.

                “Well, not in those words exactly,” Rock Lee admitted. Gaara chuckled and turned his head back to smile at Lee again. “He-he did say my love has matured with time, though.”

                “Matured,” Gaara repeated, looking at Lee with a disbelieving smile. “Lee, you are almost as immature as Naruto sometimes.” Lee inhaled to argue that, but Gaara stopped him. “I don’t mind it, though. In fact, it’s part of what I enjoy when spending time with you.”

                Lee blushed brightly at that. “Uh, actually, he had meant my tastes had matured.”

                Gaara blinked a couple of times. “Oh.”

                Quickly Lee jumped forward to wrap his arms around Gaara’s shoulders and squeeze him into a hug.

                Gaara happily allowed the contact. But his face fell into one of thought fairly quickly. “Mature or not,” he said, making Lee lean back to look at him properly, “Sakura has pink hair and eyes close in color to mine. Lee, I think you have a type.”

                “GAARA!” Lee whined, hiding his face in is hands as said Kazekage chuckled and rubbed gentle circles into his back. “That’s so embarrassing! I can’t believe I didn’t even think of that!”

                “Well, get ready for something even more embarrassing because here comes Naruto.”

**Author's Note:**

> wink wonk


End file.
